Stephan Jaeger plays golf for a living.
It's a good gig, for sure. But it's tougher than most realize. With its ups and downs, it's the ultimate survivor reality among all professional sports.
You play professional baseball or in the NFL or the NBA, you have a contract and you get paid whether you hit three homers or make three errors.
You three-putt too many times as a professional golfer, though, and you run the risk of losing money chasing the dream of stardom.
Jay GreesonThere are the megawatt stars you know by one name who already had banked seven-, eight- or even nine-figure deals with sponsors before their first win. It takes all the pressure off and allows guys like Tiger and Phil or Justin and Rory to try to make history as opposed to trying to make a living.
For Jaeger and a lot of guys with unbelievable skills banging balls on a variety of levels, it can take only one moment to alter the line of destiny. One shining scene at the right time in the right tournament can make all the difference.
And for Jaeger, the former Baylor School star who was an All-American at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, that moment could be this week at the U.S. Open.
"It can be career-changing, and I hope it is," Jaeger said last week on "Press Row" on ESPN 105.1 FM. "Sometimes you have to take an opportunity and roll with it. If I get the opportunity, and I play well and get into contention, then it's going to be great, going to be awesome. But if I don't play well, it's still going to be awesome because I get to play in the U.S. Open.
"Either way, I'm ready for it and I'm going to enjoy every single second out there."
You can make an argument that the U.S. Open golf tournament is the truest and greatest national championship in all of sports.
Sure, it does not have the Southern charm or the intimate familiarity of the Masters or the pomp and circumstance of a Super Bowl or the bracket mania tied to March Madness. But the U.S. Open is exactly that - open - to anyone who meets a certain average score. Jaeger qualified among hundreds of players. He was one of four at his location, somewhere in the middle between former PGA winner Lee Janzen and some amateur who may or may not be in his club's four-ball in a couple of weeks.
They all chase the glory of being the man in the moment. The spotlight can be fickle and fluttering, and Jaeger knows its glare will be ever bright this week in his major championship debut.
"It's different, you know. If you play in front of 100 or 200, that's a lot of people for us," said Jaeger, who is a full-time member on the Web.com Tour, the Triple-A league to the PGA Tour. "So I don't know if there will be that much difference, because I really don't know. I can't tell you what's it like because the most I have ever played in front of is 500 or maybe a thousand.
"It's going to be an experience I am going to take and just leave it at that. I don't know what to expect. But you work toward that your whole life, and it's something I've worked toward in my college career and through back at Baylor to be able to play in front of people and get to big stages. I'm ready to embrace it."
He has embraced and toppled almost every golfing hurdle in his path.
He was a three-time Southern Conference player of the year for the Mocs and has a top-10 finish this year in his first full season on the Web.com Tour. He missed the cut this weekend in Cleveland, admitting to being more than a little bit distracted about what lies ahead with the U.S. Open and then a trip to the BMW Championship on his home course in Germany.
But that's the nature of the game. A bad week could be followed by history, and if that happens to Jaeger, well, the sky's the limit.
"Golf is a sport where you never really know," he said, speaking a plain truth realized by everyone from Tiger Woods to an 18 handicapper. "If I get hot at the right time, who knows what could happen. Obviously, in the back of your mind you want to think, 'If I get into the top 10 or the top five and get into next week .'
"You can't think of those things. You have to enjoy every single second."
His immediate days are filled with getting ready mentally and physically for Chambers Bay in Washington state, a course that is a great unknown to almost all of the world. He said he was going to reach out to former Red Raiders teammate Harris English, who played Chambers Bay in the 2010 U.S. Amateur, for some tips.
His time is also filled with managing the logistics of getting tickets for friends and family
"I had a lottery," he joked about the 12 badges players get for this week. "I've got eight spoken for. I know my family's coming and my friends are coming. It's going to be a great time. I know I'm going to be nervous, which is fine.
"It's a big step in the right direction for me."
It's a step most of us expected. He's one of those kids we believed had a chance to do this on a grand scale. Like fellow Baylor alums Luke List and English in recent years, playing in a golf major is becoming almost an expected treasure for a Red Raider, like Eddie Etter or the Baylor campus view along the river.
In fact, the somber timing of Jaeger's first big swing on one of golf's grandest stages and the recent passing of legendary former Baylor golf coach King Oehmig was not lost on Jaeger.
"There's many (stories); we had a great time in high school with him. He will be missed," Jaeger said. "It's a double-sided sword. I am really happy to make it, but I wish he was here to see it. I know he is proud, and I know he'll watch every step I'm going to take.
"I hope I can make him proud wherever he is."
Here's guessing you already have, Stephan.
Contact Jay Greeson at jgreeson@timesfreepress.com and follow him on Twitter @jgreesonftp.com. You can read his online column, "The 5-at-10," Monday through Friday at timesfreepress.com after 10 a.m.